Thomas S. Lovering

Thomas "Tom" Seward Lovering (May 12, 1896, St. Paul, Minnesota – April 9, 1991, Santa Barbara, California) was an American geologist, known for his innovative field and laboratory research on relations between mineable ore deposits and hydrothermal alteration of wall rock.

Biography
During WW I, Thomas S. Lovering volunteered for the U.S. Navy and was trained as a naval aviator, but the war ended before he was assigned to combat duty. In 1919 he matriculated at the University of Minnesota School of Mines, where he graduated in 1922 with an E.M. (engineer of mines) degree. He then became a graduate student in geology at the University of Minnesota. There he graduated in 1923 with an M.S. in geology and in 1924 with a Ph.D. in economic geology. At the University of Minnesota, he learned from his professors Frank F. Grout and John W. Gruner about the hydrothermal processes that form ores. For the academic year 1924–1925, Lovering was an instructor in the University of Arizona's department of geology. In 1925 he joined the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) to do research, under the supervision of Bert Sylvenus Butler (1877–1960), on mining districts in Colorado's Front Range. In 1934 Lovering resigned from the USGS and became an associate professor in the University of Michigan's department of geology and mineralogy. From 1934 to 1942 he performed extensive laboratory investigations as a professor and during the summers he worked in Colorado for the USGS by investigating mining districts and participating in regional mapping projects in geology. In 1942 he took a leave of absence from the University of Michigan to rejoin the USGS full-time for war service during WW II. He worked in the USGS's Strategic Minerals Program and produced several reports on ore bodies in Colorado. In 1943 Prentice-Hall published his book Minerals in World Affairs, which explains the importance of various essential minerals in terms of utilization, technology, geology, and international distribution. After WW II ended, he resumed his professorship at the University of Michigan for the academic year but resigned in 1947 to accept a permanent position in the USGS's Mineral Deposits Branch. He continued this employment until 1966 when he retired at age 70. In retirement he lived in Lakewood, Colorado (near USGS regional headquarters) for about 10 years. During his retirement years, he held an appointment as research professor at the University of Arizona and lectured at the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Utah at Salt Lake City. In 1976 he moved from Lakewood, Colorado to Santa Barbara, California, where he became a research associate at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Lovering's most important research is perhaps on the geochemistry of wall-rock alterations caused by magmatic hydrothermal effects, as typified in Colorado's Boulder County tungsten and gold district and in Utah's East Tintic mining district. His research on the geochemistry of hydrothermal alteration of wall rocks and the thermodynamics and cooling rates of igneous intrusions clarified the general processes of ore deposition. In some instances, knowledge stemming from his research guided geologists in discovering concealed ore deposits. Some of his geological and hydrothermal alteration maps were widely used in Utah by private mining and exploration groups, leading to the discovery of ore deposits and the development of two major new mines.

In 1949 Lovering was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences. In 1965 the Society of Economic Geologists (SEG) awarded him the Penrose Gold Medal. In 1965 he also received the Daniel C. Jackling Award from the American Institute of Mining, and Metallurgical Engineers (AIMME).

In October 1919, Thomas S. Lovering married Alexina Corinne Gray (1895–1969), who often shared the hardships of geological fieldwork involving wilderness camping in the Colorado Rockies. Their son Thomas G. Lovering (1921–1996) was the father of a son and a daughter. After his first wife died, Thomas S. Lovering married Mildred Stewart, who died in 1983.